TribLocal roundup

July 13, 2011

Oak Park Township

Intervention program gets funding

The Oak Park Township intervention program will keep rolling, now that municipalities have agreed on a new funding structure.

The program, which hires intervention specialists to deal with troubled youths in Oak Park and River Forest, is securing funding from various local taxing bodies. The Village of Oak Park last week agreed to another year of funding.

Oak Park will pay about $61,000, which represents 24 percent of the program's $254,000 budget.

The program started in 1995 after a summer drive-by shooting in front of an Oak Park school and the gang-related death of a teenager a few blocks away. Since then, the intention is to reach troubled youths before they commit to a life of crime or drug use. The program works through the interventionists and through sharing of data and information among the villages, schools, police departments and others.

Funding for the program isn't as easy to attain as it once was because many local taxing bodies are re-examining expenditures as revenues are stagnant or have declined since the economic downturn.

The program has three employees: two full-time case workers and a supervisor who handles administrative duties and casework.

The program serves about 50 new families a year, but also has a few hundred so-called unregistered clients who only receive short-term help or are referred to other programs.

Naperville

Expanded Nike complex to have opening event

Naperville Park District officials will celebrate the Nike Sports Complex's 20-acre expansion and dedicate a new family pavilion July 16.

The event will take place from 9 a.m. to noon and will open with participants running through a ribbon at the 50-yard line of the newly built synthetic turf field.

Events will include tennis clinics, a free-throw competition and sand volleyball. Soccer drills will be held by members of the Chicago Fire soccer team.

Free popcorn will be served to the first 500 guests, and refreshments will be provided.

The Nike Sports Complex is at 1520 N. Mill St. For more information, go to napervilleparks.org.